Little Lex's YM Daytrading Journal

L

Little Lex

Hello everyone,

I am starting this thread hoping that it will turn me into a better trader.

I have been trading the YM mini dow futures since the beginning of the year. I have made a lot of progress and I have had several profitable weeks.

Unlike other traders who aim to turn 1k into 500k before the end of the month, my goal is slightly more modest. I want to be consistently profitable during the month of April.

At the end of the month I will then have to take a decision. If I am satisfied with my trading results I will increase the number of contracts. If not I will quit trading. Now that should make this thread more interesting!

In my next posts I will write about my (fairly straightforward) trading strategy and the rules I have set for myself.


Little Lex
 
Contract: YM
Lots: 1
Timeframe: intraday
Stop: max. 15 points


I like to keep it simple. I am mostly working with support & resistance, trend lines, MAs, Bollinger Bands and RSI.

In general, I hold on to my positions for less than 30 minutes. I never keep open positions over night and I don't trade the news.

I will be posting my daily results in YM points before commission.
 
I feel like I have made a lot of progress since January.
At the very beginning I didn't really have a trading plan. I was just taking random trades. I am sure I do not have to tell anyone how that turned out.

My trading improved slowly but constantly, especially when I started writing down my trades in a journal. Writing down the reason why I took a particular trade helped me in identifying the biggest losing trades.

The next problem was that although the majority of my trades were winners, they were small compared to the losing trades. I am now using a hard stop (15 points) to prevent large losses. Now I only need to figure out a way to stick with my winning trades.

So here we are. I will start posting my daily results starting today.

Good trading,

Little Lex
 
Quote from Little Lex:





If I am satisfied with my trading results I will increase the number of contracts. If not I will quit trading.

Little Lex
More...

Why?
 
The ultimate goal is to be able to trade for a living. As you are certainly aware, learning to trade well takes a lot of time and all those mistakes beginners tend to make cost a lot of money.

Just like in real trading where you use stops to protect your capital, I intend to you use a stop to prevent me from wasting too much time and money. If I don't find any way to improve my trading and if I don't see any progress, at some point I will have to call it quits.

And obviously, the other reason is to add some suspense to this thread.
 
Here are today's trades

Trade 1: Short -4
Trade 2: Long +18
Trade 3: Short -13
Trade 4: Short +9

Result: + 10


I started out the trading day/week with a terrible trade. Fortunately I was aware of this almost immediately and I closed it straight away. The first loss is the best.

The second trade was a beauty ... up to the point where I lowered my target by 25 points. Needless to say that the target was hit later on. So instead of +43 points I ended up with +18. I suppose the reason why I moved the target is impatience and the fact that the first trade was a losing trade. I was happy to have my P&L back in the green.

I entered trade 3 expecting a trend reversal. It was a bad trade. I probably should have waited for a confirmation. So again, the problem was impatience.

And finally trade 4. This trade was 30 points in the green before reversing. I did not close it straight away because it hadn't hit my target. I then decided to close it before the trade turned into a loser.

Conclusion for today:

The 2 losing trades were identical. Patience and waiting for confirmation should lower the number of losing trades.

The problem with the winning trades were the targets. One trade was closed too early, the other one too late. Fear & Greed?

Little Lex
 
I was having a really hard time today. I couldn't figure out what the market was doing. It was painful too. I had 2 trades this morning and both hit the stop limit.

I observed the market for the rest of the day but never got a feel for it. My third and last trade of the day was as bad as the first two.

Today: -44
Week: -34
Month: -34

I suppose I am having trouble trading a sideways market. Was anyone else having a hard time today?
 
counting commissions?


Quote from Little Lex:

Here are today's trades

Trade 1: Short -4
Trade 2: Long +18
Trade 3: Short -13
Trade 4: Short +9

Result: + 10


I started out the trading day/week with a terrible trade. Fortunately I was aware of this almost immediately and I closed it straight away. The first loss is the best.

The second trade was a beauty ... up to the point where I lowered my target by 25 points. Needless to say that the target was hit later on. So instead of +43 points I ended up with +18. I suppose the reason why I moved the target is impatience and the fact that the first trade was a losing trade. I was happy to have my P&L back in the green.

I entered trade 3 expecting a trend reversal. It was a bad trade. I probably should have waited for a confirmation. So again, the problem was impatience.

And finally trade 4. This trade was 30 points in the green before reversing. I did not close it straight away because it hadn't hit my target. I then decided to close it before the trade turned into a loser.

Conclusion for today:

The 2 losing trades were identical. Patience and waiting for confirmation should lower the number of losing trades.

The problem with the winning trades were the targets. One trade was closed too early, the other one too late. Fear & Greed?

Little Lex
More...
 
Quote from Little Lex:


And finally trade 4. This trade was 30 points in the green before reversing. I did not close it straight away because it hadn't hit my target.
Little Lex
More...

You obviously have not done much analysis on average moves in the YM... A 30 point gain on a trade happens only 30% of the time by my research... so if you only have 1 contract ... you'd be wise to exit a little sooner on the winners... or at least trail a stop tighter.
 
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